Which of the following are similar to the ways you've served Christ in your family? [check all that apply]
• Taught your kids to see God's glory in nature
• Washed the dishes without being asked
• Played a board game with your kids
• Encouraged your wife to finish her master's degree
• Attended a child's open house at school
• Worked fewer hours to be with your family
• Set an example of a godly prayer life for your children
• Held a crying child
• Swung on the tire swing with your daughter
• Told your wife why you're still in love with her
• Told your son he's got what it takes
• Coached soccer
• Let you child correct you now and then
• Fixed the vacuum cleaner
• Taught your sons to ride a bike
• Listened patiently to a complaint of your wife
• Taped your child's artwork to your office wall
• Admitted to your kids that you were wrong
• Told your children how Christ entered your life
• Cleaned up vomit
• Taught your children to love books
• Been romantic without expecting sex
• Told your daughter she's smart/beautiful
• Set standards for your kids and stuck to them
• Dealt graciously with a busybody neighbor
• Peeled carrots
• Watched movies together
Not "Trying to Write a Chorus" Theme of the Week: Praise the Lord! Wednesday, November 20, 2002
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November/December 200256Not "Trying to Write a Chorus"Theme of the Week: Praise the Lord! Not "Trying to Write a Chorus" Theme of the Week: Praise the Lord! Wednesday, November 20
Key Bible Verse: As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God (Psalm 42:1, KJV). Bonus Reading:Psalm 42:2–11
In spite of an airline strike, Marty Nystrom, a 24-year-old school-teacher, got to Christ for the Nations Institute in Dallas, for a six-week 1981 summer session—by train. This was no noble spiritual quest. His sights were set on a young woman. But the campus was austere, the Texas heat sweltering, and he soon learned that the desired relationship wasn't to be. Why didn't he just go home? Marty's answer: "I didn't have a ticket."
A radical roommate convinced him that a 21-day, water-only fast would help him regain perspective. "Something about the fast immediately broke me," Marty says. "My spirit became increasingly hungry for communion with God." Nineteen days into the fast, Marty sat down to a "very out-of-tune piano" in the men's dorm and began spontaneously to sing out various psalms.
"God gave me a melody for Psalm 42:1. I just began to sing off the Bible page," he recalls. "People ask why I start 'As the Deer' in King James and end up with contemporary language," says Marty. "I went from what I was reading off into my own response. I wasn't trying to write a chorus—I was just worshiping."
—Phil Christensen and Shari MacDonald in Our God Reigns
My Response: A psalm that captures my own hunger for God is …
Thought to Apply: You alone are my heart's desire, And I long to worship Thee. —Marty Nystrom (lyrics reprinted by permission of author)
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